PARRIS ISLAND - Charles "Chuck" Taliano, a Marine Corps icon and Parris Island Marine Corps Recruit Depot legend, died June 4 at the age of 65.

Taliano - whose memorial service was Wednesday at The Depot Chapel on Parris Island -was best known for appearing in the infamous recruiting poster that warned prospective Marines that "We Don't Promise You a Rose Garden." In that iconic poster, Taliano appears as most drill instructors do, intense and somewhat frightening.

However, according to the people who knew him, that photograph was hardly representative of the man Taliano was when the campaign cover came off. The "Sergeant T" they came to know was a man who spent decades tirelessly working for the Marine Corps.

"He was definitely a very strong-minded individual," said Rosa Robertson, a long-time colleague of Taliano. "He knew what he wanted and he worked very hard to get it - and what he wanted most was to take care of Marines."

Even after his tour of active duty, Taliano kept close to the Marine Corps, eventually finding his way back to Parris Island. While here, Taliano went to work - ostensibly as the manager of the Alexander Ship gift shop - but more importantly as a living representative of the Marines of yesteryear.

"He put his heart and soul into his work here," she added. "To him, there was nothing more important that keeping the legacy of the Corps going, and he did that by always taking the time to take care of the families who came here, and the young Marines they came to see.

"He definitely had Marine blood running through his veins - and nothing else."

Taliano leaves behind a legacy that spanned decades, starting in the 1970s when his poster began gracing recruiter's walls.

In his later years, Taliano worked aboard Parris Island - ostensibly as the manager of the Alexander Shipp gift shop, but more importantly as a living representative of the Marines of yesteryear.

"He always represented the best qualities of the Marine Corps," said retired Col. George Biszak, who first met Taliano in 1997, when Biszak was responsible for the Parris Island Museum.

"What was unique about him, though, was that he was in touch with the newer generation of Marines, but could still swap stories with his generation."

That universal appeal led Marines to travel from across the globe to see him, get an autographed copy of his poster, or to just shake his hand, Robertson said.

"He wanted every Marine to know that no matter where you were, there would be brother and sister Marines around you to welcome you. It was the way he felt, and it showed in the way he conducted himself," she added.

In the end, nothing could capture Taliano's feelings about the Corps better than he did himself in a July 2009 interview with The Boot, Parris Island's newspaper.

"What a drill instructor does is he builds a relationship and a brotherhood with those recruits," he said. "As soon as you pin that Eagle, Globe and Anchor on him, that relationship will last forever."